Farmers, firefighters, utilities are hoping for heavy precipitation this winter

Jan. 3, 2013

Bales of corn stalks are covered with a dusting of snow Friday near La Vista, Neb. / Nati Harnik/AP

Written by

Jim Suhr

Associated Press

ST. LOUIS — When his drought-stricken Nebraska farm was blanketed with several inches of snow, Tom Schwarz welcomed the moisture. But it wasn’t nearly enough.

He had hoped for a wet, snowy winter. Instead, he’s watched with worry as the sky spits mostly flakes that don’t stick.

“I just shudder to think what it’s going to be if we don’t get snow,” Schwarz said. “A friend told me it would take 150 inches of snow to get us back to normal precipitation.”

Despite getting some big storms last month, much of the U.S. is still desperate for relief from the nation’s longest dry spell in decades. And experts say it would take an absurd amount of snow to ease the woes of farmers and ranchers.

The same fears haunt firefighters, water utilities and communities across the country.

Winter storms have dropped more than 15 inches of snow on parts of the Midwest and East in recent weeks. But climatologists say it would take at least 8 feet of snow — and likely far more — to return the soil to its pre-drought condition in time for spring planting. A foot of snow is roughly equal to an inch of water.

Many areas are begging for moisture after a summer that caused water levels to fall to near-record lows on lakes Michigan and Huron. The Mississippi River has declined so much that barge traffic south of St. Louis could soon come to a halt. Out West, firefighters worry that a lack of snow will leave forests and fields like tinder come spring.

Scores of cities that already have enacted water restrictions are thinking about what they will do in 2013 if heavy snows and spring rains don’t materialize.

For a while, it seemed no snow would come. Midwestern cities including Chicago, Milwaukee and Des Moines, Iowa, had their latest snows on record. How much would it take to make things right?

“An amount nobody would wish on their worst enemy,” said David Pearson, a National Weather Service hydrologist in Omaha, Neb. “ “... It would take a record-breaking snowfall for the season to get us back on track.”

FIGURE TO KNOW

• More than 80: Number of calls in June that the volunteer fire department in Divide, Colo., responded to, compared with the normal 30 calls.
• Three-fourths: Share of the calls that were related to wildfires.